Dear Jim

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Dear Jim,

Are we comfortable?  Do I have a good chunk of your brain in a position to listen?  Good, good...I've been trying to make my point since dirt, and I keep missing the mark.  So I'm going to try one more time.

Let me give you an example:

Bloop

Hear that?  That's the sound the infantry man hates the most.  It's the sound of a mortar firing.  Mortars are nasty, wicked things...They don't have to SEE you to kill you.  They're indirect fire weapons.  Worst part is, they're SLOW.  You can actually SEE the round in flight.

Of course, "slow" is a relative term.  They're much faster than you, for example.  But unlike larger artillery, you can hear them before they get you.  If you're on a gentle slope with no cover, though, knowing it's coming doesn't offer much consolation.  A trained person will go completely flat on the ground, and offer The Grunt's Prayer.

Dear Lord, for that which we are about to receive, may we be eternally grateful.

An untrained person will stand there, wondering what the weird noise was, until the mail arrives.  In this case, it's a couple of pounds of explosives wrapped in wire (with the low velocity, the shell doesn't have to be armored against the shock of launch, meaning it's all contents and no wrapper).  When the mail arrives, it does so as a wall of overpressure that's about as hard as mild steel and lined with tiny pieces of steel wire.

Please note that going prone doesn't do MUCH good, as mortars are "plunging fire" weapons, and come straight down.  It MIGHT, though, keep you alive if they miss by 5 meters or more.

So, what's the point of all this?

Well, we spend a lot of time thinking of ways to see the world the way it really is, as opposed to the way we'd LIKE to see it.  This gives us a very marginal advantage over the people who believe whatever they're told by their trusted news source, etc, whichever that source may be.

But what do we DO with that advantage?  Simply knowing Bad Shit is coming down the pike doesn't do anything besides giving you ulcers.  You have to be willing and able to do something about it, to "hit the dirt", so to speak.  It might not save you, but it's better than no chance.

So what are you doing?  What steps can YOU take?  In many cases, this is directly proportional to your income...Poor people ALWAYS get fucked, or at least they're far more PRONE to being fucked...But "fucked" isn't the same as "hopeless", and there's always something that can be done to mitigate the endless tidal wave of shit that washes over us once or twice a century.

I'm not telling you WHAT to do.  I'm telling you to be ready to do SOMETHING, because doing something is almost always better than doing nothing.  Organize at the workplace.  Write your state level congressmen about abusive city police.  Find a group that's trying to do something, and get involved.  Those are just a few options, and they're designed to forestall the wave, not survive it.  Prevention beats cure, every day of the week.

So that's part of what I've been trying to say.  You don't have to answer me, of course, you have to answer to yourself.

Bloop

What are you gonna do? 

Or Kill Me

[LMNO]

You're making me THINK again, Roger.

For srs, what AM I doing?  I mean, as opposed to the stuff I WANT to do, I SAY I'll do, and you know, put off to one side for "later".


I'll have to get back to you on that.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You're making me THINK again, Roger.

For srs, what AM I doing?  I mean, as opposed to the stuff I WANT to do, I SAY I'll do, and you know, put off to one side for "later".


I'll have to get back to you on that.

Yes, I know the feeling.

"I'll hit the dirt just as soon as I finish flensing the goldfish."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Holy shit, that was good. I want to post it EVERYWHERE. In fact, it's going up all over campus tomorrow.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Can I sign it "The Good Reverend Roger"? I would like to just leave it in bathrooms, perhaps slightly crumpled. Maybe with just the faintest smear of blood and a trace of the smell of despair.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Holy shit, that was good. I want to post it EVERYWHERE. In fact, it's going up all over campus tomorrow.

wooooooo

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Can I sign it "The Good Reverend Roger"? I would like to just leave it in bathrooms, perhaps slightly crumpled. Maybe with just the faintest smear of blood and a trace of the smell of despair.

Please.   

[Salty]

Yup, this is great.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Can I sign it "The Good Reverend Roger"? I would like to just leave it in bathrooms, perhaps slightly crumpled. Maybe with just the faintest smear of blood and a trace of the smell of despair.

Please.   

YAY!

[EK WAFFLR]

This is FANTASTIC. I want to copy Nigel's idea.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This is FANTASTIC. I want to copy Nigel's idea.

Go ahead.

[Suu]

Holy shit, that was good. I want to post it EVERYWHERE. In fact, it's going up all over campus tomorrow.

I think I'm doing the same. My university needs some enlightenment.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Need to find a place where people actually read stuff so I can drop some copies off.
Austin, most likely.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

This should be the opening salvo of the next Book. It is awesome.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I'm betting on what groups trying to do something will dissipate first. Ha ha ha, they thought they could do something, suckers. I don't have to worry about bearing the brunt of the next financial meltdown because I eat fancy food, drive a fancy car, and live in a fancy house.

When the elite make their next move to further cleave society into the owned and the owners, I know I'll make the cut. They wouldn't do me like that. My bank account is fancy.

I care about poor people that die of preventable disease that can only get the ER to treat them when their condition is life threatening. I care about the poor people who fill prisons to make privatized prison owners one of the biggest growth industries in the US. I really do. My true inner self cares, and weeps for the poor, it's just I can't bring myself to actually do a goddamn thing for them. Luckily, it's what's on the inside that counts.

And I'm full of expensive food and armchair compassion. That's what matters, Roger. Not this busy body, doomed to fail, overly optimistic blather that if I do something I can stave off a societal steamroller that I'm going to be offered a back seat in anyway.